Playboy Playmate Shawn Dillon to join anglers at Wahoo Smackdown V

Wahoo Unloaded for Weighing at Wahoo IV Tournament. John Bell

Playboy Magazine Centerfold Shawn Dillon. © Playboy

Shawn, who has won major bikini competitions from Vegas to the Bahamas, grew up fishing with three brothers, either on her uncle’s boat in Bimini or in the lake in their Sarasota, Florida backyard. Also a surfer and wakeboarder, Shawn will be involved in final weigh-ins, presenting trophies and, well, posing for pictures and signing autographs for participating teams.

Also returning to the November tournament as Grand Marshal will be writer John Hemingway, grandson of novelist and sport fishing legend Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, who also spent considerable time fishing off Bimini as a youngster, will be chasing Wahoo onboard Miss Kethleen II, captained by Tournament Director Chase Camacho.

Ernest Hemingway, who lived and fished in Bimini for two seasons in the 1930s, is credited with putting the tiny island on the international sportfishing map. During its heyday, Bimini anglers, including Hemingway (who is credited with being the first to land an unmutilated tuna on the docks) would catch many hundreds of blue marlin, bluefin tuna, sharks and other game fish for display and trophy mounts. Today the blue marlin granders and huge bluefin are rare.

Catch and release thanks to the IGFA and conservation groups is the norm for many billfish and sharks caught, though Camacho said that wahoo, yellowfin tuna and dolphin are still prevalent in certain territories.

'Playboy, Hemingway and the potential to catch a lot of Wahoo, should make for some bucket list memories,' said Camacho. 'We already have several boats committed so it looks like we will have a competitive field of anglers.'

Camacho said the entry fee for Wahoo Smackdown V (which includes four anglers per boat) is an affordable $1,250 ($100 for each additional angler). At stake is $30,000 in cash and prizes to be won.

For information regarding the next Wahoo tournament and to register online, please click here or call (800) 867-4764.